[A-List] Breast Beating

[Bill Totten <shimogamo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The G8 has the interests of the rest of the world at heart - until they
conflict with its own.

by George Monbiot

Published in the Guardian (June 05 2007)


It is time once again for that touching annual ritual, in which the
world's most powerful people move themselves to tears. At Heiligendamm
they will emote with the wretched of the earth. They will beat their
breasts and say many worthy and necessary things - about climate change,
Africa, poverty, trade - but one word will not leave their lips. Power.
Amid the patrician goodwill, there will be no acknowledgement that the
power they wield over other nations destroys everything they claim to
stand for.

The leaders of the G8 nations present themselves as a force for
unmitigated good. Sometimes they fail, but they seek only to make the
world a kinder place. Bob Geldof and Bono give oxygen to this deception,
speaking of the good works the leaders might perform, or of the good
works they have failed to perform; but not mentioning the active harm.
They refuse to acknowledge that what the rich nations give with one
finger they take with both hands.


Look at what is happening, right now, in the Philippines. This country
has many problems, but one stands out: just sixteen per cent of children
between four and five months old are exclusively breastfed {1}. This is
one of the lowest documented rates on earth, and it has fallen by a
third since 1998 {2}. As seventy per cent of Filipinos have inadequate
access to clean water, the result is a public health disaster. Every
year, according to the World Health Organisation, some 16,000 Filipino
children die as a result of "inappropriate feeding practices" {3}.

These are the deaths caused only by acute results of feeding children
with substitutes for breastmilk. A summary of peer-reviewed studies
compiled by the campaigning groups Infact and Ibfan suggests that
breastfeeding also reduces the incidence of asthma, allergies, childhood
cancers, diabetes, coeliac disease, Crohn's, colitis, obesity,
cardiovascular disease, poor cognitive development, ear infections and
poor dentition {4}. Switching from bottle to breast could prevent
thirteen per cent of all childhood deaths {5}: a greater impact than any
other measure. Panaceas are rare in medicine, but the mammary gland is one.

Both the government of the Philippines and the UN blame the
manufacturers of baby formula for much of the decline in breastfeeding.
These companies spend over $100 million a year on advertising breastmilk
substitutes in the Philippines, which equates to over half the
department of health's annual budget {6}. Those who appear most
susceptible to this advertising are the poor, who are also the most
likely to be using contaminated water to make up the feed. Some spend as
much as one third of their household income on formula. Powdered milk
now accounts for more sales than any other consumer product in the
Philippines {7}. Almost all of it is produced by companies based in the
rich nations.

Since Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986, the government of the
Philippines has been trying to stand between these corporations and
vulnerable mothers {8}. It has failed. It plugs one loophole; the
formula companies find another. Baby Milk Action, one of the world's
most impressive public health campaigns, has compiled a dossier of
breaches of the marketing code drawn up by the World Health
Organisation. Formula companies have been dispensing gifts to both
health workers and mothers, running promotional classes and meetings and
advertising their wares on television and in magazines and papers {9,
10}. These practices, though mostly legal in the Philippines, are all
discouraged by the code {11}.

In February this year, the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of
the Philippines (PHAP), which represents multinational companies, ran a
series of advertisements expressing concern for women unable to
breastfeed their children. The campaign was described by the UN's
special rapporteur, Jean Ziegler, as "misleading, deceptive, and
malicious in intent". He claimed the adverts "manipulate data emanating
from UN specialized agencies such as WHO and UNICEF ... with the sole
purpose to protect the milk companies' huge profits, regardless of the
best interest of Filipino mothers and children". {12}

Last year, in the hope of arresting this public health disaster, the
Philippines Department of Health drew up a new set of rules. It
prohibited all advertising and promotion of infant formula for children
of up to two years old. It forbade the formula companies from giving
away gifts or samples or from providing assistance to health workers or
classes to mothers {13}. The new rules seem stiff, but they all come
straight from the WHO's code. PHAP, whose members include most of the
world's biggest pharmaceutical companies {14}, went to the supreme court
to try to obtain a restraining order. When it failed the big guns arrived.

The US embassy and the US regional trade representative started lobbying
the Philippines government. Then the chief executive of the US Chamber
of Commerce in Washington - which represents three million businesses -
wrote a letter to the president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo. The
new rules, he claimed, would have "unintended negative consequences for
investors' confidence". The country's reputation "as a stable and viable
destination for investment is at risk" {15}. Four days later, the
Supreme Court reversed its decision and imposed the restraining order
PHAP had requested. It remains in force today. The government is
currently unable to prevent companies from breaking the international code.

So the Department of Health asked a senior government lawyer, Nestor
Ballocillo, to contest the order. In December Ballocillo and his son
were shot dead while walking from their home. The case remains unsolved:
Ballocillo was working on several contentious issues. Last month the US
regional trade representative paid another visit to the Philippines
government {16}. The department of health now appears to be wavering. In
two weeks' time the campaigners trying to promote breastfeeding will
present their arguments to the Supreme Court to try to get the order
lifted, and the formula companies will try to stop them. If the
companies win, thousands of children will continue to die of preventable
diseases.

The pressure to which the US government and the US Chamber of Commerce
have subjected the government of the Philippines is at odds with almost
everything the G8 now claims to stand for: the millennium health and
education goals, the eradication of poverty, fair terms of trade. But
the G8 nations will pursue their stated objectives only to the point at
which they collide with their own interests. Away from their sentimental
summits, they pull down everything they claim to be building.

The G8 demands action on climate change; the World Bank, controlled by
the G8 nations, funds coal burning power stations and deforestation
projects. The G8 requests better terms of trade for Africa; Europe and
the United States use the world trade talks to make sure this doesn't
happen. The G8 leaders call for the debt to be reduced; the IMF demands
that poor nations remove barriers to the capital flows which leave them
in hock. The G8 leaders simultaneously wring their hands and wash their
hands. We have done what we can; if we have failed, it is only because
of the corruption of third world elites.

The question is no longer whether the undemocratic power the G8 nations
exert over the rest of the world can be used for good or ill. The
question is whether it will cease to be used.

www.monbiot.com



References:

1. Baby Milk Action, 9th November 2006. International campaign aims to
save Philippines baby milk marketing law - and infant lives.
http://www.babymilkaction.org/press/press9nov06.html

2. Connie Levett, 3rd February 2007. Formula for profit seen as recipe
for disaster. Sydney Morning Herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/formula-for-profit-seen-as-recipe-for-disaster/2007/02/02/1169919531018.html

3. Jean Marc Olive, WHO country representative, cited by the Philippines
Sunday Times, 5th November 2006.

4. INFACT Canada and IBFAN, July 2006. Risks of Formula Feeding: a brief
annotated bibliography.
http://www.infactcanada.ca/mall/risks-formula-feeding.asp

5. Gareth Jones et al, 5th July 2003. How many child deaths can we
prevent this year? The Lancet, Vol 362, pages 65-71.

6. AC Nielsen, cited by Maricel E Estevillo, 14th July 2006. Business
World, Philippines.

7. Connie Levett, ibid.

8. The current rules are contained in Executive Order 51, passed in 1986.

9. Alessandro Iellamo, WHO Philippines, 30th May 2007. Description of
the Bonna Kid Bigay Tibay sa Barangay, 29th May 2007, pers comm.

10. Alessandro Iellamo, May 2007. Philippine Struggle for Child
Survival: Call for International Solidarity.

11. World Health Organisation, 1981. The International Code of Marketing
of Breastmilk Substitutes.
http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/code_english.pdf

12. UNHCR, 26th February 2007. Un Special Rapporteur Appalled
with the Deceptive Tactics of Milk Companies in the Philippines.
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/3035D668F9E92329C125728F00294A69

13. Department of Health, 15th May 2006. Revised Implementing Rules and
Regulations of Executive Order no 51. Administrative Order 2006 - 0012.

14. The members are listed here: http://www.phap.org.ph/directory.aspx

15. Thomas J Donohue, 11th August 2006. Letter to Gloria Arroyo.

16. Manila Standard Today, 9th May 2007. Report of visit of Barbara
Weisel to Philippines Department of Trade and Industry.

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/06/05/breast-beating/


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